Conf  Pam  12mo  #586 


No.  60. 


m 


HE  EVILS  OF 


A  LETTER  TO  A  FRIEND  IN  THE  ARMY. 


BY   REV.    J.    B.    JETER,    D.D.,    1UCIIM0ND,  VA. 


Deab  Fri  arning  that  gaming  is  prevalent  in 

Lriny,  1   have  concluded  to  address  yofc  a  Utter  on  its 

I  hardly  need  to  assure  yon  that  Lam  actuated  in  this 

aination  '  to  guard  ;. 

b  fascinating  am  which  may   issue  in  your  ruin.     F 

fully    |  ill  listen  to  the  counsel  of 

one  who  loves  you,  who  re  olicitude  for  your  welfare, 

and  whose  age  and  experience  qualify  him  to  offer  you  whole- 
some instruction  and  warning. 

That  gaming  u  will  readily  admit. 

like  many  other  sins,  not  expressly  but  virtually  pro- 
hibited in  the  scriptures,  it  is  utterly  at  variance  with  feneir 
spirit  and  tenor,  ft  springs  from  the  inordinate  loveofm 
"  the  root  of  all  evil."  This  insatiable  desire  plunges  the 
gamester  "  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  into  many  foolish 
and  hurtful  lusts,"  by  which  he  is  in  danger  of  being  drowned 
"  in  destruction  and  pi  '     He  violates  the  law  of  love  : 

"  ..VI I  things  whi  ■•-.  would  that  men  should  do  to  you, 

do  ye  even  so  to  them."  "Were  this  divine  rule  universally 
understood,  lovrd  and  obeyed,  it,  would  banish  naming,  and  its 
attendant  evils,  from  the  world.  The  life  of  the  gambler 
exemplifies  tire  remark  of  Solomon,  "He  that  maketh  haste 
to  be  rich  shall  hot  be  inno<  ent."  Not  eon  tent  with  the  slow 
and  steady  gains  of  industry  and  economy,  the  gamester  seeks 
to  grasp  the  golden  prize,  reckless  of  the  means  of  attaining 


it.  He  cannot  pray,  without  mocking  his  Maker,  "Lead  me 
not  into  temptation."  The  petition  implies  a  desire  to  escape, 
and  an  obligation  to  resist  temptation;  but  the  gamester 
courts,  knowingly  and  fearlessly,  the  most  dangerous  tempta- 
tions. Good  men,  in  all  countries,  and  in  all  ages,  and  almost 
without,  an  exception,  agree  in  the  condemnation  of  gaming. 
Most  civilized  nations  have  enacted  stringent  laws  to  suppress 
the  vice  as  a  nuisance  and  curse  to  society.  Even  gamblers 
themselves  admit  that  the  practice  is  wrong.  An  estimable 
man — a  reformed  sportsman — once  said  to  me,  "  I  would 
rather  a  gambler  should  warn  my  son  against  gaming  than 
you  should :  he  knows  the  evils  of  it  from  experience,  and 
you  do  not." 

Gaming  is  a  most  seductive  vice.  The  path  that  leads  to 
this  dangerous  precipice  is  strewed  with  flowers.  "  There  is 
no  harm,"  says  the  tempter,  "in  gaming  for  amusement." 
Perhaps,  there  is  none.  A  game  of  chance  or  skill  for  relax- 
ation or  diversion  seems  to  be  innocent.  It  violates  no  express 
law  of  God  or  man.  But  the  sport  creates  an  agreeable 
excitement ;  and  the  fondness  for  this  excitement  grows  by 
indulgence.  At  first  the  game  is  resorted  to  merely  to  fill  up 
an  idle  hour,  or  to  relax  the  mind  from  grave  and  wearisome 
pursuits  ;  but  soon  it  encroaches  on  the  business  of  life,  and 
the  seasons  of  devotion.  The  pleasurable  emotion  is  increased 
by  small  stakes  ;  and  there  is  no  more  evil,  it  is  plausibly 
maintained,  in  betting  than  in  playing  for  amusement.  To 
keep  up  or  to  augment  the  excitement,  the  stakes  are  gradu- 
ally and  indefinitely  increased.  The  amount  staked  becomes 
an  object  of  desire,  and  the  utmost  skill  and  exertion  are  put 
forth  to  win  it.  Success  allures  to  continued  and  bolder,  and 
failure  to  deeper  and  more  reckless  gaming ;  and  thus  by. 
winning  and  by  losing  the  excitement  is  kept  up,  and  the 
hopeful  or  the  despairing  adventurer  presses  forward  in  his 
career.  The  gamester  has  now  reached  a  crisis  at  which  se- 
cresy  becomes  necessary  to  screen  him  from  suspicion  and 
reproach ;  and  he  will  find  haunts  suited  to  his  purpose — rooms 
splendidly  furnished,  barred  and  guarded,  accessible  only  to 
the  initiated,  or  to  the  candidates  for  initiation,  where  he  is 
invited  to  partake  of  the  richest  fare,  "  without  money  and 
without  price."     In  these  gambling   "hells,"  as  they  are  ap- 


propriately  called,  he  will  meet,  not  merely  with  the  low  and 
the  mean,  but  with  the  rich,  the  refined,  the  gay  and  the 
great.  Cheered  by  the  presence  and  the  example  of  persons 
so  numerous  and  respectable,  he  pursues  his  course,  and  soon 
becomes  confirmed  in  the  habit  of  gaming.  Now  arguments, 
warnings  and  entreaties  are  addressed  to  him  in  vain — the 
loss  of  property  and  character  cannot  deter  him,  nor  can  the 
miseries,  tears  and  pleadings  of  hi^  wife  and  children  win 
him,  from  the  path  of  ruin  on  Which  lie  has  entered. 

Gaming  is  a  most  pernicious  vice.  I  cannot  hotter  illustrate 
its  evils  than  by  giving  a  simple  statement  of  the  career  and 
doom  of  a  gambler  whom  1  knew  well  hat  who  shall  he  name- 
less in  this  letter.  He  was  of  respectable  parentage  and 
connexions,  and  ot  a»most  amiable  and  generous  nature.     Ho 

?rew  up  a  promising,  noble  young  man.  the  admiration  of  his 
riends,  and  the  pride  of  his  family.  lie,  early  in  life,  evinced 
an  aversion  t"  steady  employment,  and  became  the  victim  of 
artful,  selfish  and  unscrupulous  gamesters.  His  patrimony 
was  soon  spent,  and  he  found  it  necessary  to  resort  bo  gaming. 
and  its  usual  arts  oi^  deception  and  swindling,  to  supply  his 
wants,  lie  quickly  became  a  c  >nfirmed  gamester,  demoting 
to  a  large  city,  he  entered  regularly  into  the  gambling  busi- 
ness, ilis  associates  were  gamblers,  and  sharpers,  and  their 
dupes,  of  various  degrees  of  guilt.  From  virtuous  and  re- 
spectable society,  such  as  he  had  known  in  his  youth,  he  was. 
of  course,  excluded.  Prom  the  Christian  sanctuary,  and  all 
its  sacred  privileges,  he  habitually  excluded  himself.  His 
noble  nature,  aided  by  the  upright  principles  instilled  into  his 
mind  by  his  pious  mother,  long  resisted  the  corrupting  influ- 
ences of  his  business  and  his  associations.  He  retained  a 
warm  attachment  to  his  kindred,  who  were  happily  ignorant 
of  his  degradation,  and  from  his  ill-gotten  gains  made  gener- 
ous contributions  for  their  support.  He  was  accounted 
honorable  among  gamblers,  for  they  have  a  code  of  honor 
among  themselves.  A  gamester  who  does  not  SAvindle  according 
to  established  rules  is  deemed  a  disgrace  to  their  fraternity, 
and  is  liable  to  be  expelled  from  it.  But  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  was  conscientious,  so  far  as  conscientiousness  can  be 
affirmed  of  one  whose  business  is  pursued  in  violation  of  the 
laws  of  man  and  of  God.     Repeatedly  he  made  efforts  to  aban- 


don  his  occupation,  tear  himself  away  from  hi*  associates, 
and  regain  his  position  in  reputable  society.  But  poor  man  ! 
what  could  he  do  ?  Without  employment,  without  the  means 
of  support,  without  kind  and  faithful  friends,  and  without 
encouragement  to  reform,  after  a  few  fitful  struggles,  lie 
would  relapse  into  his  inveterate  habit.  lie  had  entered  into 
a  society  in  which  the  Bible  was  not  respected,  the  sabbath 
was  not  known,  and  piety  was  ridiculed  :  and  nothing  much 
short  of  a  miracle  could  have  extricated  him  from  the  bad  and 
potent  influences  that  were  hurrying  him  to  destruction. 
Over  the  door  of  the  gambler's  retreat  might  be  appropriately 
inscribed,  in  letters  of  lurid  llame,  "  This  is  theway  to  hell ; 
going  down  to  the  chambers  of  death. ;;  But  few  of  the  mul- 
titudes who  enter  these  haunts  of  dissipation,  crime  and  infa- 
my, ever  make  their  escape  to  the  circle  of  virtuous  society, 
or  become  heirs  of  heaven  ;  and  the  man  of  our  story  was  hot 
one  of  the  favored  few.  After  every  failure  at  reformation, 
he  sunk  to  lower  depths  of  vice  and  degradation.  Gambling 
is  rarely,  or  never,  a  solitary  vice.  Profanity,  drunkenness, 
debauchery,  swindling,  and  such  like  evils,  spring  up  spon^a 
neously  in  the  gambler's  hell,  and  reach  an  early  and  fearful 
maturity.  The  un fortune  gamester  was  not  exempt  from  the 
vices  so  common  to  his  profession.  He  was,  I  know,  addicted 
to  drunkenness,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  was  the  victim  of 
all  its  kindred  sins.  The  way  of  transgressors  is  always  hard, 
and  usually  short.  The  poor  -gambler  was  doomed  not  to  live 
out  half  his  days.  His  drunkenness  was  followed  by  delirium 
tremens;  and  in  a  fit  of  this  horrible  disorder,  he  leaped  from 
the  third  story  of  his  wretched  abode  upon  the  paved  street, 
and  -was  found  at  early  dawn  by  the  watchmen  Of  the  city,  a 
mangled,  unconscious  and  dying  man,  1  attended,  his  fune- 
ral. It  was  a  solemn  and  instructive  scene.  But  few  of  his 
accomplices  in  crime,  and  his.  companions  in  degradation, 
were  present.  They  avoided  a  sight  which  must  have  pain- 
fully reminded  them  of  their  guilt,  infamy  and  approaching 
doom.  As  I  attended  his  body  to  the  grave,  two  of  his 
ciates  testified  tnat  their  lives  had  been  preserved  in  a  time  of 
fatal  epidemic,  and  genera!  panic,  by  his  kind,  assiduous  and 
skilful  nursing.  The  gambler,  drunkard  and  suicide  was  laid 
in  a  solitary,  unblessed  and  dishonored  grave.     I  often  notice 


it  in  passing  with  a  sad  heart.  No  stone  marks  the  spot 
where  rest  his  mortal  remains — no  flowers  blossom  on  his 
tomb — but  the  place  is  barren  and  desolate — a  fit  emblem  of 
his  life  and  doom* 

In  the  story  of  this  unfortunate  man.  you  have,  ay  clear 
friend,  the  history,  omitting  circumstantial  variations,  of 
every  professional  gambler.  This  numerous  elns*  are  all  on 
the'high  road  to  ruin.  They  have  lost  their  virtue,  their  ••lia- 
.  and  their  happiness.  They  are  wasting  their  time. 
ituting  their  talents,  corrupting  the  youth  of  the  country, 
deceiving  and  swindling  the  unfortunate  victims  of  their  art',-, 
setting  thorns  in  their  death  pillows,  and  preparing  their  souls 
for  eternal  destruction.  It  is  questionable  ■whether  they  are 
nol  the  most  hardened,  the  most  reckless,  and  the  most  gojl- 
on  tin-  earth.  "  The  finished  --ambler." 
said  Dr.  Xott.  "  has  no  heart— he  would  play  at  his  brother's 
funeral — he  would  gamble  upon  his  mother's  coffin."  Truly 
as  I  love  you,  my  friend,  and  earnestly  as  1  desire  your  earthly 
welfare.  I  would'  rather  see  you  an  inmate  of  the  poor  house 
than  an  occupant  of  the  most  splendid  gambler's  hell,  and  in 
the  raoel  successful  course  of  accumulating  wealth  by  the 
and  infamous  arts  of  gaming. 

Thus  far  I  have   portrayed    the   evils   of  gaming  on  pi 

sional  gamesters  —let  us  now  notice  tne  effects  of   the  vi n 

u>es  and  victims  of  these  sharks  in  human  form.  It  is 
surprising  that  any  man.  of  sane  mind,  not  initiated  into  the 
swindling  arts  of  the  profession,  should  venture  to  play  with 
a  practiced  gamester.  There  is  no  equality  in  the.  contest. 
It  is  simplicity  contending  with  cunning — inexperience  oon- 
tending  with  skill.  The  uninitiated  can  never  win,  except  as 
they  are  permitted  to  do  so,  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging 
them  to  bet  more  largely.  Success  does  not  depend  on  chance, 
or.  even,  ab  much  on  skill  as  on  the  arts  of  deception  and 
swindling.  Some  years  ago,  I  was  present  in  a  select  com- 
pany before  which  a  reformed  gambler  exhibited  the  various 
contrivances  and  arts  by  which  the  ignorant  and  unsuspecting 
are  cheated  of  their  money.  To  the  unpracti.ed  these  means 
seemed  little  less  than  micacuious.  Cards  are  usually  manu-* 
factured  by  gamblers,  and  by  marks  that  escape  the  notice  of 
the  novice,  they   are  known   as  readily  by  their  backs  as  by 


6 

their  faces.  In  shuffling,  cutting  and  dealing  a  pack  of  cards, 
the  skillful  player  can,  without  the  danger  of  detection,  secure 
for  himself  any  card,  or  just  such  a  hand  as  he  chooses.  Nor 
is  it  so  surprising  that  astute  gamblers,  stimulated  by  the  in- 
tense desire  of  gain,  and  devoting  their  time  and  powers  to 
the  art  of  playing  and  deceiving,  should  attain  to  great  skill 
in  their  business.  They  learn  of  one  another,  and  quicken 
one  another's  ingenuity  ;  and  they  are  restrained  in  their 
tricks  by  no  regard  to  law,  justice  or  humanity.  They  belong 
to  a  realm  from  which  conscience  is  banished.  Gamblers 
generally  travel  and  operate  in  company,  that  they  may  the 
more  successfully  seduce  and  fleece  the  unwary.  These  sharp- 
ers play  with  each  other  so  as  to  attract  attention.  One  seems 
to  be  in  luck,  and  winning  rapidly.  He  allures  into  partner- 
ship with  him  some  simpleton,  who  hopes  soon  to  reap  a 
golden  harvest.  But  the  tide  of  luck  quickly  changes  ;  and 
the  miserable  dupe  is  stripped  of  all  his  treasures,  and  left  to 
bear  his  loss  and  his  shame  as  best  he  can.  The  execrable 
swindlers  when  alone  divide  their  ill-gotten  gains,  and  con- 
tinue their  heartless  robberies.  By  these,  and  similar  arts, 
multitudes  are  every  year  deprived  of  their  honest  gains,  or 
their  patrimonial  estates.  It  is  by  such  victims  that  gamblers 
live,  grow  rich,  and  dwell  in  splendor.  I  knew  a  plain,  in- 
dustrious, honest  and  worthy  man,  who,  from  a  thirst  for 
gaining,  went  every  Saturday  evening  to  squander  at  the 
gaming  table,  among  professional  harpies,  his  hard  earnings, 
until  he  had  lost  twenty  thousand  dollars.  He  knew  that  he 
would  lose  in  "every  visit  to  the  gaming  table,  and  yet  such 
was  his  infatuation,  that  no  argument,  no  entreaty,  and  no 
motive  could  induce  him  to  forego  the  pleasure  of  the  sport. 
But  in  the  face  of  all  these  facts  and  considerations,  gamblers, 
the  lowest  and  the  meanest  of  men,  still  find  victims  of  their 
arts,  and  derive  their  profits,  not  merely  from  the  thoughtless 
and  the  dissipated,  but  from  the  intelligent,  the  wealthy  and 
the  respectable.  Year  after  year,  thousands  are  reduced,  by 
the  nefarious  arts  of  gaming,  to  povertyland  ruin.  Their  fam- 
ilies, in  many  instances,  stripped  of  the  means  of  comfort  and 
support,  are  disheartened,  grieved  and  humbled. 

If  then,  my  friend,  you  would  preserve  your  virtue,  your 
character,  and  your  happiness — if  you  would  not  prostitute 


jour  powers,  prove  a  curse  to  the  world,  and  a  grief  to  your 
fond  parents — if  you  would  not  plant  thorns  in  year  dying 
pillow,  bar  the  gate  of  heaven  against  yourself,  and  force  your 
passage  to  destruction,  shun  the  gambler,  and  the  gambler's 
hell,  as  you  would  the  plague.  Gamesters  are  not  tit  to  be 
your  associates.  They  are  debased  in  their  sentiments,  cor- 
rupt in  their  principles,  vicious  in  their  practices,  and  baleful 
in  their  influence.  They  may,  indeed,  be  polished  in  their 
manners,  and  warm  in  their  professions  of  friendship  ;  but 
they  seek  your  money  and  your  ruin.  Vuu  cannot  touch  them 
without  contamination.  To  be  acquainted  with  them  is  to  be 
dishonored.  You  cannot  enter  their  haunts  without  peril  to 
all  your  best  interests.  If  there  were  no  sin  and  no  reproach 
in  gambling,  it  would  be  the  greatest  stupidity  to  risk  your 
money  on  games  with  the  must  skillful,  the  most  unscrupu- 
lous, and  the  most  dishonest  of  sharpers.  You  had  better 
throw  your  money  into  the  fire  ;  for  in  gaming  you  are  simply 
giving  it  to  the  most  selfish  and  the  meanest  of  human  kind 
— to  harpies,  who  are  seeking  to  cheat  you  not  onlv  out  of 
vour  money,  but  out  of  your  virtue  and  of  your  soul.  The 
honest  man  who  stakes  his  property  at  the  table  of  a  profes- 
sional gamester  is  simply  a  fool,  He  shuts  his  eyes  that  he 
may  suffer  himself  to  be  cheated.  He  richly  deserves  to  be 
fleeced,  and  put  to  confusion  and  shame  :  and  happy  will  it 
be  for  him,  if  ho  learns  from  his  first  lesson  his  folly  and  his 
danger.' 

Beware  of  gaming  even  for  amusement.  It  is  not  nec« 
for  purposes  of  relaxation  and  diversion.  Fortunately,  there 
is  no  lack  of  recreations,  innocent  in  their  nature,  and  refining 
in  their  tendency.  Conversation,  reading,  walking,  riding, 
athletic  sports,  and  numerous  simple  diversions,  may  be  re- 
sorted to  in  the  intervals  of  toil  or  study,  to  refresh  and 
invigorate  the  body,  or  to  unbend  the  mind.  But  gaming  is 
an  amusement  fraught  with  peril.  It  nourishes  a  habit  that 
may  prove  the  wreck  of  property,  the  bane  of  virtue,  the 
blight  of  happiness,  the  ruin  of  the  soul,  and  the  curse  of 
eternity.  Abstain  then  from  an  indulgence  that  yields  little 
pleasure  and  no  profit,  and  is  pregnant  with  such  fearful  peril. 
He  that'  enters  this  flowery,  downhill,  slippery  road,  knows 
not  where  he  will  stop.     Thousands  who  begin  by  playing  for 


pleasure  end  by  playing  for  gain.  Thousands  who  play  hon- 
estly in  the  beginning,  m  the  end,  resort  to  all  the  tricks  and 
frauds  of  the  profession. 

I  need  not  repeat,  my  young  friend,  how  sincerely  I  desire 
your  welfare.  You  are  the  comfort,  the  pride  and  the  hope  of 
your  parents.  They  anxiously,  as  I  know,  trained  you  in  the 
ways  of  virtue  and  piety ;  and  their  earnest  prayers  have  ac- 
companied you  to  the  camp.  You  are  nobly  engaged  in  your 
country's  service.  I  have  confidence  that,  guided  by  the 
principles  taught  you  in  your  youth,  sustained  by  the  prayers 
of  your  friends,  shielded  by  the  knowledge  you  have  of  the 
dangers  that  encompass  you,  and  humbly  trusting  in  God,  and 
animated  by  the  prospect  of  a  bright  reward,  you  will  pass 
uncorrupted  through  the  temptations  of  a  soldier's  life,  and 
return  to  your  home,  to  be  the  support  and  solace  of 
your  parents,  the  delight  of  your  friends,  and  an  ornament  of 
society. 

'  Your  very  sincere 

WELL  WISHER. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
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